The Nifty 50 declined 0.9% to 24,890.03, while the Sensex dropped to 81,659.09 in mid-morning trade.
Satish Chandra Aluri,
Lemonn Markets Desk
Mumbai, June 23, 2025: Indian equity benchmarks opened the week lower, falling around 1% on Monday amid ongoing geopolitical tensions. The Nifty 50 declined 0.9% to 24,890.03, while the Sensex dropped to 81,659.09 in mid-morning trade. However, both indices recovered substantially, with the Nifty touching a high of 25,057 before closing at 24,971. IT stocks led the decline after Accenture reported another quarter of shrinking outsourcing orders. The Nifty IT index shed 1.8%, reflecting concerns over slowing U.S. demand and global tariff uncertainty.
Domestically, however, macroeconomic data offered a far more optimistic outlook. India’s private sector activity surged in June, with the HSBC Flash Composite PMI rising to 61.0, a 14-month high, driven by robust domestic and international demand. The Manufacturing PMI climbed to 58.4, while services activity rose to 60.7, indicating broad-based strength.
Particularly encouraging was the record increase in new export orders, especially in the manufacturing sector. This surge in global demand, coupled with rising order backlogs, led to the strongest manufacturing hiring levels in over two decades. Meanwhile, input cost inflation moderated, allowing companies greater pricing flexibility without aggressive cost pass-throughs.
In sector-specific news, small finance banks rallied after the Reserve Bank of India reduced the priority sector lending requirement from 75% to 60%, easing regulatory pressure and potentially boosting margins.
While markets remain cautious due to geopolitical risks, India’s domestic growth fundamentals—especially in manufacturing and exports—remain resilient. Investors may stay risk-averse in the near term, but improving macro data and easing inflation could provide a buffer and re-anchor focus on earnings and rate cut expectations ahead."
Shrikant Chouhan, Head Equity Research, Kotak Securities, adds:
Today, the benchmark indices corrected sharply. The Nifty ends 141 points lower, while the Sensex was down by 511 points. Among sectors, the Media index outperformed today, rallied 4 percent, whereas the IT index was the top loser, shedding nearly 1.52 percent. Technically, on the backdrop of weak global sentiment, our market opened with a gap down. However, after an early morning intraday correction, the market took support near the 20-day SMA (Simple Moving Average) and reversed sharply. On daily charts, it has formed an inside body candle, which indicates indecisiveness between the bulls and the bears.
We believe that currently, the market is witnessing range-bound activity, and the intraday setup suggests that non-directional activity is likely to continue in the near future. On the downside, 24,850/81500-24,700/81000 would act as key support zones for bulls, while 25,100/82300-25,200 /82500 will be the crucial resistance areas. However, below 24,700/81000, the uptrend would become vulnerable.
